It has long been known that absorbent articles such as conventional taped diapers, pull-on diapers, training pants, sanitary napkins, pantiliners, incontinence briefs, and the like, offer the benefit of receiving and containing urine and/or other bodily exudates. One absorbent article which has gained much popularity is the pull-on diaper, particularly for children who are able to walk and who may be engaged in toilet training.
Pull-on diapers generally include a front waist region, a back waist region, and a crotch region between the front waist region and the back waist region. The front waist region and the back waist region can be disposed adjacent to a front waist edge and a back waist edge of the pull-on diaper. Typically, the front waist region and the back waist region can be joined via pairs of side panels to form a waist opening and a pair of leg openings. Both the front waist edge and the back waist edge can make up a portion of the waist opening, and a pair of longitudinal edges can make up a substantial portion of the leg openings.
In general, pull-on diapers leave the front waist edge, the back waist edge, and the longitudinal edges unfinished. Typically, these edges include a topsheet and a backsheet. A drawback of an unfinished edge is that consumers generally associate the unfinished edge with a lower quality product.
It is known to provide edge finishing materials on a front waist edge, a back waist edge, and longitudinal edges. However, the process can be complex particularly for the application of edge finishing materials to the front waist edge or the back waist edge. For example, the edge finishing material typically is folded about the front waist edge and the back waist edge and attached to the topsheet and the backsheet in both the front waist region and the back waist region. However, folding edge finishing materials about the front waist edge and the back waist edge can increase the complexity of the process.
Consequently, a need exists for a disposable absorbent article which provides an appearance of a finished front waist edge and an appearance of a finished back waist edge and reduces the complexity of the process for providing the appearance of the finished front waist edge and/or back waist edge. Additionally, a need exists for a disposable absorbent article which provides an appearance of finished front and/or back waist edges in conjunction with an appearance of finished longitudinal edges, thereby communicating quality to the consumer.